20 months today!

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  Subject: Historia Familiar     

So this week was great!

Last night we had a lesson with Sandi and have planned to go to the temple with her and her family to help them get an answer this week. She has got a lot of fellowship from ward members and is doing a lot better in not drinking coffee. Also we talked a little bit about family history and she already has Family Search! She got it like 2 years ago and has already done a lot of genealogy! We are planning on going to the temple with them on Saturday and are excited for it and think that it will help them get an answer.

Also this week Maribel finally came to church and she loved it! It was also great because the speakers were the bishop and someone in the stake presidency and they were very well given talks.

I really liked what the stake counselor said, when talking about what we learn about God from Joseph Smiths first vision, that how comforting it is to know that God has a glorified and perfected body of flesh and bones and isn't just a substance or cloud that is floating around out there. God has a body, as does the Son and we can become like Him. If you take away the fact that God doesn't have a body it changes and takes away the whole purpose of the Plan of Salvation. We are God's children and can become like Him through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Anyways so Maribel is doing well but the biggest challenge is that every 2 weeks she opens her paca, meaning she gets lots of new clothes, and Sunday is the best day to sell stuff because everyone goes to the market and they pass her paca on the way. But she loved church and wants to go again. She also wants to get baptized but we haven't put a date with her because she can't go to church for the next two weeks. Keep her in your prayers that she excercises a lot of faith this Sunday to come to church for at least an hour.

We had a multi-zone this past week and my companion took a picture with 5 other brazilians in the mission and when they were talking in portuguese I realized that I understood them! My ear has gotten used to portugese because of my companions accent and portuguese that he says every once in a while that I could totally understands what they were saying. But Elder Presbiteros spanish is getting a lot better.

I would encourage you all to do more family History work because it is really fun to learn about ancestors, especially pioneer ancestors! I am so grateful for one of my ancestors, Barry Wride, who learned of the Restored Gospel and got baptized in Wales England in 1857 at the age of 24, and later immigrated to Payson Utah, where my grandparents are from. I encourage you to learn more about your ancestors this week and take those names to the temple!

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19 months - Una Semana Más

During our phone call with Joseph today, Corey had him go over some college stuff, like sign up for the housing he wants this fall (he signed up for Helaman Halls, building 3 I think). We also got his flight plans two weeks ago. He is coming home in July. He could be coming home in June 2nd but he wants to extend. We tried to tell him he should could home and get working on all the stuff he needs to figure out before starting school, like how he's going to pay for it, but as he thought of that and read his scriptures, he read the verses from the Lord's prayer of taking no thought for the morrow. 3 Nephi 13:34. He seemed to struggle a little bit as we made him step out of his "lost in the work" mindset and face a bit of the "back to reality" life choices that will be here very soon. We're excited for him to come home, but we're also grateful that he is loving being a missionary. We trust that the Lord will help him make all the decisions that will be coming up this summer, like what to major in and how to pay for school and stuff. We can trust that as we take one day at a time, the Lord will provide and the morrow will take care of the needs of itself. Matthew 6:34. Our friend Elder Christofferson gave a great talk on that topic - Daily Bread - read here - or watch here.
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  Subject: Una Semana Más     

Well this week was good, but not as good as we were hoping it would be.

Last week we went to the megapaca and look what we found! A picture of the Salt Lake Temple!

So I bought it and its by my desk now. We also saw a Book of Mormon in english and a bunch of other church stuff and also some U of U gear. I was going to buy the Book of Mormon but instead we left our phone number in it.

We also had a zone breakfast with chocolate chip pancakes this morning. We remembered everything except for forks. But the pancakes were really good!

Also speaking of food this week we made these smiley face hash browns.

Yesterday we saw some miracles contacting and found a lady who had recently moved here who went to church but never got baptized and wants to learn more and right next to her was a less-active guy I had met, but I didn't know where he lived.

We were a little disappointed that the important appointment we had with Sandi and her family had to get canceled last week again but we finally went last night and had a good lesson about the Doctrine of Christ. But we should have focused from the beginning on her need because she was really wondering about the reality of the plates so we talked about the importance and the weight of the 3 witnesses. But the great thing is that Sandi hasn't missed a week of church since the year started which is really awesome and we are teaching her siblings and mom more too. Keep them in your prayers!

And speaking of the three witnesses I would also like to give my testimony to the world of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Also I would like to note that if the Book of Mormon were a total fraud, then why didn't any of the three witnesses deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon ever, even when they were not affiliated with the church? Well it's because its true. 

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So Joseph didn't say anything about this egg picture, but it was attached in his email, so I'll share my thoughts: As he shared last month, they get eggs from a lady they are teaching, and some of them are really big and have either huge yolks, or they have two yolks! So I said that that must be a sign of good luck, if you have a two yolk breakfast, that means that it's going to be a good day. :) So go and make it a good one, make it a two yolk day!

Also, I remember having those hash brown smiley faces once, not sure if it was Brazil, Costa Rica, or Chile, but it seems like it was recently so I'm going to say it was when we were in Brazil in 2015. Joseph also shared that they recently bought some of the Brazilian cheese bread ball things, but they don't have an oven in their apartment to cook them in, so they just covered them and cooked them on the stove, he said they turned out good! 

19 months - ¿A donde va?

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  Subject: ¿A donde va?     

I was on the bus yesterday and to double check we were on the right bus and to break the ice with the lady I was sitting next to to try and share a little bit of the gospel with her I asked her where the bus was going. Her response surprised me because she said "I don't know!" in a way that made it very obvious that she did not want to talk to me and then she pretended to be sleeping. I tried to talk to her in another way but she didn't respond. I thought it was pretty funny how badly she didn't want to talk to me and her first response also made laugh. I resisted the urge to ask her why she was on the bus if she didn't know where it was going. Obviously she probably knew where it was going but just didn't want to talk but I think there is a life lesson there.

How many times do we make a decision, or metaphorically "get on a bus", and we don't know where it's going? Some people don't even know where they want to go! We are children of God and He has a plan for us. If we follow that plan we will be able to live again with Him and become like Him. Or in other words, that end destination that we should all have is Eternal Life - the greatest of all the gifts of God. The plan to help us get there includes keeping His commandments, living the gospel, and serving others. I invite you to personally reflect about where the decisions you are making are taking you and make changes in your life, through prayer and scripture study, to press forward with both feet on the strait and narrow covenant path. I promise that if you do so you will have the Spirit more in your life and feel more peace and happiness. We all make mistakes and need to improve and that is possible because of Jesus Christ. He is more concerned with which direction we are going than where we are on the path.

Also a cool story to share is that on Monday of last week we had contacted a guy in the street and then we went to his house he wasn't there. That's not the cool part because that happens all the time. The cool part was that his dad was there and he really wanted to help his son out because he was in a rebellious phase. The dad, named Barux, said that if his son said we could visit him it means he would be willing to listen to us and we might be able to help him change. So we have another appointment for tomorrow and are hoping it goes well. The Lord prepares people for us to find and He is more anxious that we have success than we do. We just have to qualify for those blessings.

We are also going to have a very important appointment with Sandi and her family tonight, that had to be postponed twice so please pray that it will go well. She hasn't missed a Sunday since the new year and it doing really well, but just needs to make the decision to be baptized and drop coffee completely.

Training is going well and getting better. He has a lot of excitement to talk to everyone and doesn't have fear to open his mouth which is fantastic. That is one of the ways we overcame Satan in the beginning and its how we will do it now. Love you all!

Pictures are of lunch yesterday

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19 months - A Still Small Voice

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  Subject: A Still Small Voice       

So this week I lost my voice. I am better now but it was an interesting couple of days trying to work without being able to talk very strong and training. The good thing about it was that Elder Presbitero learned a lot because he had to talk a lot more since I could only talk in a whisper or a super rascal voice. His teaching and contacting is getting a lot better and practicing during companionship study is helping a lot.

It was also interesting because sometimes people don't understand him because of his portuguese accent and sometimes I don't even understand him. But Elder Presbiteros spanish is getting better but sometimes he forgets he is not in Brazil and breaks out in portuguese and doesn't realize it. The funniest part is that normally when he does it he is stressed or worried about something. So he asks me something in portuguese, forgetting that its not spanish, but I don't understand what he wants and then he gets more stressed and takes in more portuguese and it we get nowhere. But he is good and has a lot of excitement to work and talk to everyone. Also this morning he started singing "p-day, p-pday, p-day, p-day" to the tone of "Beat it" by Michael Jackson.

As far as the work goes Sandi an Gaby accepted to pray about getting baptized on the 15th of February this past week! They are doing well and came to church with their mom on Sunday but last night when we went they had not prayed very much about getting baptized but we had a great lesson about how God answers prayers but we have to ask Him and watched the Restoration video as part of that. Also I think their mom Nancy would really get along with my mom because she is all about soy and almond milk and vegetables and all that stuff. Love you Mom!

Claudia also got confirmed this week and had an interview with the Bishop on Sunday for her recommend and is doing great! Her husband also listened last night in the lesson which doesn't always happen and said the prayer at the end even though he didn't want to at first.

When I didn't have my voice and had to talk in a whisper it was amazing how people paid a lot more attention and quieted down because they knew that if they didn't they wouldn't be able to hear me. The Spirit also speaks in a still small voice and if we are not listening and cutting the distractions out of our lives we won't hear it. I encourage you all to do everything to be able to qualify for the Spirits guidance and follow its promptings, especially in sharing the Gospel with others.

That's it for this week but does anyone want to share their plans to prepare for general conference? I would love to hear them.

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I appreciated the shout out to me and my efforts to follow plant based eating, haha. Also, another fun fact is that I've lost my voice too! It is not totally gone, just really raspy, yesterday and today, and I can't talk high or sing high notes. Joseph didn't get to hear it though cause I missed his phone call. I've noticed the same thing too about the kids kinda paying better attention when I talk softer, but I've missed it cause I can't call out to them strongly like I'm used to. I've noticed that they all yell alot though,